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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 6083605" data-attributes="member: 23484">Admittedly, I am staking an extreme position. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />But given the system we've seen, I think it solves more problems than it creates.It's easy to get more skills, you just need to decide to invest in them -- to make the decision to become a skill guy. Based on what we've seen in DDN, individual skills are less important now -- with the exception of disable device (which leads to problems I've discussed <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?333140-Disable-Device-and-Thieves-Tools" target="_blank">here</a>), everything is done through ability checks. Skills give a benefit, but it's not the case that everything needs to be "covered". Skills let you add your skill die. As long as this way of modelling skills stays, then I think too many skills just undermine the ability to be special, and to usefully contribute to the party.Right now, there are problems with the list, IMO. One is the large number of suboptimal choices. I've suggested a modest paring of the list <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?332925-Paring-the-skill-list" target="_blank">here</a>. The discussion there shows how varied the understanding of skills is, even among smart interested readers of the packets. See, I'm not sure that's true. It will be for some, sure. Maybe even for the "advanced" character builders that frequent these boards. But it adds a complexity that doesn't obviously make things better. Overlap is simply too easy to get:- Some Races give skills (Elves get Spot and Listen)- Backgrounds give skills- Some Classes give skills (and this is the defining benefit for rogues) *- One can choose to take Superior Skill Training *- Some Feats also give a skill incidentally (e.g. Hide in Shadows)etc. (conceivably magic items could let you use a skill die to accomplish something, etc.)So with my approach, if a character already trained in Stealth learns to Hide in Shadows, he doesn't learn a new skill. The alternative is that he or she may learn how to Use Rope, or Heraldry, or how to Drive a cart. It's better just to let it be a free choice of a skill, than go through this charade.Perception skills are even more skewed: only Thugs and Spys and Elves are naturally perceptive, but now Elf Spys get to choose any skill they want, but others don't. That doesn't seem right.Or Again: Clerics learn Knowledge Arcane, Religion, or Forbidden Lore. What happens when a background gives one of these (e.g. Sage or Priest)? If I have Kn (religion) already, do I get a free choice in my skill (my cleric swims!) or do I have less choice than I would if I were not a priest? Neither answer satisfies.Examples like this are just too easy to find, and will only increase as more and more material becomes available. In a system with ability checks not skill checks, fewer skills across the board, with a modestly pared list, is (I feel) the answer. Don't like that answer? Fine! I'm just as happy with a "more skills" answer:All characters get 6 (or however many) skills -- chosen freely from a list. No backgrounds, no racial skills, no class skills. Just a free choice with a fixed number. The only characters who get more are Rogues and those who invest in Superior Skill Training.</blockquote>

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